If you have issues viewing or accessing this file, please contact us at NCJRS.gov. .. .' , , .~ . ,"-: <' ..... E 221 ., ''''"., " .' .....".. ..1t! J ..." '~.;ri: .' . 'I" ;. " .' ~_v .> " .~ - '!, .. .. j; ;-= VL ~~'.'., ... fr . .. .1', ____ -------------< Task Force Report ASSESSMENT OF CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN PENNSYLVANIA January 1969 JUL 30 waD PENNSYLVANIA CRIME COMMISSION Office of the Attorney General ~ Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ACQUnS~ETHONS ~,>-. ~::F:- ~.~ '-... ' ".-; < ,,~ E=m=:= "Just Zisten to the Zaw-enforcement peopZe across our Zand. They wiZZ teZZ you that the reaZ probZem wi th figh ting crime today is that a ZZ Americans have not been sufficientZy aroused to win the war against the criminaZs. There must be an informed puhZic with the courage to heZp our dedicated men in the po Uce:t courts:t and corrections. " Governor Raymond P. Shafer February 8, 1968 r------------ ONWEALTH OF PENNSy COtdM L"A.~IA. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL PENNSYLV ANIA CRIME COMMISSION HARRiSBURG. P,\. 17120 WILLIAM C. SENNETT J. SHANE CREAMER ATTORN~Y G~N~RAL DIRECTOR Honorable Rayrr.ond P. Shafer Governor of Pennsylvania Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Dear Governor Shafer: In accordance with your directive of March 27, 1967, which establishes the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, we respectfully submit the following report as a result of our study of crime and its control in the Commonwealth. During the past 21 months, the Commission has re­ ceived and studied testimony from 200 leading members of law enforcement, courts, corrections, and academic and tech­ nical circles, all of whom are primarily concerned with crim­ inal justice. In addition, the Commission staff has studied literature and statistics and analyzed all available information in its attempt to assist the Task Forces of the Commission and to develOp new concepts. This Task Force Report on the IIAssessment of Crime in Pennsylvania" will be followed by evaluative reports on Courts, Corrections, Police, Youth and Crime, Crime in the City, AlCOholism, Narcotics, Plight of the Minor Offender, and Organized Crime. All the Task Force Reports will expand on the theme, "Goals for Justice, II the comprehensive report of the Commission. ~~'~~ WILLIAM C. SENNETT Attorney General Chairman, Pennsylvania Crime Commission THE COMMISSION William C. Sennett Attorney General Chairman Colonel Frank McKetta Harold Rosenn, Esquire Judge Charles Wright Henry S. Ruth, Jr., Esquire THE ORIGINAL COMMISSION* William C. Sennett Attorney General Chairman Samuel C. Bullock Senator Donald O. Oesterling Representative Harry R. J. Comer Representative Joseph P. Rigby Alexander Cooper, Esquire Henry S. Ruth, Jr., Esquire E. Maxton Darone John 1. Shumaker, Esquire Judge Harold L. Ervin Judge Joseph Sloane Shannon C. Hartland David Stahl, Esquire George J. Joseph, Esquire Judge G. Harold Watkins Senator Ernest P. Kline Roy Wilkinson, Esquire Dean Burton R. Laub Helene Wohlgemuth Colonel Frank McKetta Marvin Wolfgang David F. Maxwell, Esquire Senator T. Newell Wood 't< TIl(' Original Commissio/l lVas appointed by GOJ!el'llor Shafer ill JUlie of 1967 and served until September of 1968 wizen the five-member Commission was established by the L egisla ture. iv THE STAFF OF THE COMMISSION DIRECTOR J. Shane Creamer, Esq. DEPUTY DIRECTOR ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS Major Arthur W. Shulenberger Allyn Sielaff Stewart Werner ASSISTANT DIRECTORS Martin Walsh Robert Saylor Douglas Little Lt. Roy Titler TECHNICAL ASSISTANTS TECHNICAL CONSULTATION John Yeager The Franklin Institute Richard Lindsey Research Laboratories STAFF Benjamin Brooks Richard Meyer Clifford Karchmer Kenneth Murphy Philip Kockler Alan Musser Donald Lederman Henry Sorett Patrick Malone William Spong Richard McDowell Thomas Tridico Gregory Wilcox v TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Title Page 1 THE CHALLENGE OF CRIME IN PENNSYLVANIA 1 2 THE STATUS OF CRIME IN PENNSYLVANIA. 6 Types and Amounts of Crime 6 Crime-Related Factors. 31 3 CAUSES OF CRIME. 41 4 CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIMINAL OFFENDERS. 43 Arrested Offenders 44 Probationers 48 Prisioners 48 Recidivism . 48 5 TRENDS IN CRIME. 50 Trends in Number of Reported Index Crimes, 1960 through 1967. ... 50 Trends in Rates of Reported Index Crimes, 1960 through 1967 ..•......... 52 Trends in Rates and Distribution Reported Index Crimes, 1960 through 1967. 55 Trends in Arrests ..... 55 Factors Affecting Trends 55 6 IMPACT OF CRIME ..... 62 Personal Victimization 62 The Economic Impact of Crime . 64 7 PENNSYLVANIA'S SYSTEM OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE. 65 The Police. 70 The Magistrate . 70 The Prosecutor . 71 The Court. 72 Corrections. 72 The Problems 73 REFERENCES . 77 LIST OF CONSULTANTS .. 79 vi r .. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TitZe Page 1 Reported and Estimated Rates of Index Crimes Committed in Pennsylvania in 1967 . 3 2 Reported Crime Rates in Pennsylvania, Border- ing States, and the United States .. 3 3 Number of Index Crimes Reported in Pennsyl- vania in 1967 .... ... .... 7 4 Geographical Distribution of Index Crimes Reported in Pennsylvania in 1967 .. 33 5 Distribution of Index Crimes Reported in Phila- delphia in 1967 by Police District. 38 6 Number of Arrests for Serious Offenses in Pennsylvania in 1967 Versus Age of Arrestees .. ...... .. 46 7 Trends in the Number of Reported Index Crimes in the United States and in Pennsylvania, ,. 1960 through 1967. ..... .. 51 8 Trends in the Rates of Reported Index Crimes Against the Person in Pennsylvania, 1960 through 1967. .. •. .,.... 52 9 Trends in the Rates of Reported Index Crimes Against Property in Pennsylvania, 1960 through 1967. .. .. 53 10 Trends in the Rates of Reported Index Crimes in the United States and in Pennsylvania, 1960 through 1967 .. .... 54 11 Trends in the Geographic Distribution of Index Crimes in Pennsylvania, 1960 through 1967. ......... ... 56 12 A General View of Pennsylvania's Criminal Justice System Showing Flow of Crimes and Offenders . .. .. 68 13 Estimated 1966 Expenditures for Pennsylvania Criminal Justice System . .... 75 '. vii LI ST OF TABLES TabZe TitZe Page 1 Number of Reported Stolen Property Offenses of Each Type in Pennsylvania in 1967 and Dollar Value of Stolen Articles . • . 14 2 Value of Property Stolen and Recovered in Pennsylvania in 1967 .......•. 15 3 1967 Arrest Statistics for Pennsylvania . 26 4 Reported Crime Rates in the United States by Region, 1967 • . • . • . 34 5 Reported Crime Rates in Pennsylvania by Region, 1967 ..••......... 35 6 Comparison of Crime Rates in Pennsylvania Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Core Cities, 1967 ...... 37 7 Percentages of Arrested Persons Under 18 and Under 25 Years of Age in the United States, in Pennsylvania, and in Philadelphia, 1967. 45 8 Criminal Justice System Personnel in Pennsyl­ vania in 1966 • . • . 74 viii _______ ~_. _____________________........ __""""""'_1IIlIliiiiiii ----------------------------------------------------~--------------------------------------------- SECTION 1 THE CHALLENGE OF CRIME IN PENNSYLVANIA There is much crime in Pennsylvania - more than is ever reported, more than is ever solved, too much for the health of the Commonwealth. Assuming today is an average day, police within this State will be in­ formed of the murder of one person, the raping of three women, the rob­ bery of 18 people, the assaulting of 20 citizens, the theft of 74 cars, the occurrence of 77 major larc8nies, and the commission of 154 burgla- 1 ries. But mere statistics on the amount of reported crimes in the Com- monwealth do not convey the magnitude of actual crime committed in Penn­ sylvania. A survey conducted in 1967 for the President's Commission on 2 Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice revealed that far more crime is committed than is reported. In this survey 10,vOO households throughout the United States were asked whether anyone in the household was a victim of a crime in the last year, whether the crime was reported, and if it was not reported, why it was not. The results illustrated in Figure 1 show the disparities, often great, between reported and unreported crimes actually committed. (Auto thefts, however, are reported more fre­ quently, apparently because most owners insure their automobiles against theft, thus providing an incentive to report the crime.) The violent crime rate obtained from the survey is almost twice as great as is reported to the police. furthermore, the rate of property crime is nearly one and one-Qalf as much as the reported index crime rate. It can be inferred from this survey that Pennsylvania suffers from much more crime than the reported statistics show. Other similar surveys conducted for the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Adminis­ tration of Justice in Washington, boston, and Chicago show that the num­ LeT' of unT'eported committed crimes may be fT'om three to ten times the number of T'epoT'ted cT'imes. 1 ,----------~ ------.----~-- --- --- Although many crimes are committed in Pennsylvania, our population is generally exposed to less crime than the citizens of other large in­ dustrial states. In fact, the number of crimes per 100,000 population in Pennsylvania measured by so-called c~ime ~ates are generally lower than in the majority of states. According to figures in the J967 Uni- · R 1 . f o~m C~~me epo~ts Pennsylvan~a ranks 31st in the violent crime late, 39th in the property crime rate, and 39th in overall crime rate among the 50 states. 'l'he overall crime rates per 100, 000 population in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are about the same, as are the violent crime rates in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, and the property crime rates in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. As shown in Figure 2, reported total crime rate in the Commvnwealth in 1967 was 72 percent of the Ohio rate, ~5 percent of the New Jersey rate, 40 percent of the Maryland rate, and only 37 percent of the New York rate. Compared to the nation as a whole, Pennsylvania's violent crime rates, both against the person and against property, are about 55 percent of the national aver- age. Just as statistics on reported crimes seriously understate the mag­ nitude of crime, they also fail to convey the enormous scope of crime.